A new skills training center is being built in western Massachusetts to help put low income residents of Springfield to work and to help preserve an attraction that annually draws tens of thousands of people from throughout the region.

The $3 million job training facility that is being constructed in Springfield’s Forest Park is an unusual partnership that includes the city’s parks department, local trade unions, the regional employment board, and a private nonprofit that puts on the huge Bright Nights holiday light festival.

New York Congressional representatives are praising efforts in the House to pass a bill focused on strengthening local workforce training programs. The bill that would allow federal dollars to enhance existing programs passed with wide bi-partisan support.

In a 415-6 vote, Congress recently passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

A version in the Senate was also approved 95-3, and the bill is headed to the president’s desk.

A western Massachusetts community college has announced a major contribution from a former professor to help launch a state of the art health education center. The new facility will help meet the demand for skilled workers in the region’s growing health care industry.

Holyoke Community College at a meeting of the school’s board of trustees Tuesday morning announced a $1 million contribution to a $5.3 million campaign to equip a new center for health education. College president William Messner said the center will open in the fall of 2015.

A recently announced New York state grant program aims to form 16 public-private partnerships to prepare students for high-skill jobs.

Leading companies across New York in areas of manufacturing, clean technologies, healthcare, and other sectors are teaming up with high schools and community colleges in an effort to train students for the high-skill jobs in their area.

A recently released report in Massachusetts analyzed and made recommendations on how to address the growing skills gap in education and workforce.

The report is titled Closing the Massachusetts Skills Gap: Recommendations and Action Steps, and is published by the Commonwealth Corporation, a quasi-public organization within the state’s Executive Office of Labor of Workforce Development.

A series of state-funded grants recently announced by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick aims to create hundreds of jobs and train thousands of workers in the Commonwealth. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Announced by the Patrick-Murray Administration, the wave of grants through the Workforce Training Fund aims to boost the Massachusetts economy by providing job training to over 6,300 workers, and producing an estimated 682 jobs. The $6.8 million is being divided among 87 companies in a variety of fields across the Commonwealth.

With just a few days to go until the election, western Massachusetts participated in a national campaign Wednesday to warn about federal spending cuts to job training programs. Employment specialists and labor leaders held a news conference at an employment office in Springfield. WAMC”s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

A small college in Springfield Massachusetts has been awarded a federal grant for its nursing school. It will help respond to a national call for a more highly educated and ethnically diverse workforce in nursing. WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports

A jobs training program aimed at the so-called “skills gap” is being launched in western Massachusetts. It’s a new effort to help the unemployed acquire the skills needed to land a job in the growing field of precision manufacturing. WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.